People have been talking about that Yao should take more shots and demand the ball more. But they haven't really addressed the issue of how Yao feels if he does take that many shots, and maybe, effectively becomes the first option in shooting the ball on the team. Well, given his culture , that is, how he's brought up to be, I guess he has more issues to deal with besides 'demanding the ball more' or ' be more assertive and aggressive'. As I assume, Yao will probably think,'what if I do take as many shots as coach told me? What if my teammates feel about me taking away their chances(to shoot the ball) and glammor? What if they complain about that? Worse still, what if I have some off nights after making teammates disgruntled?' Judging from where he came from, this could be the darn truth. I guess nobody will disgree that too much thinking creates hesitation on a basketball player's part and disrupts his rythm. In other words, Yao would never be 100 percent while taking shots, especially after he has already got some attempts. The solution might be to train Yao to get used to taking many shots. In other words, he should take 'taking so many shots' for granted and never be aware of that. Otherwise, the humble guy would never feel totally at ease playing the ball.
Yao should just say to himself, self, if they didn't want me to shoot that last shot, they wouldn't have passed it to me. From what I've seen, everytime Yao makes a good play, he gets high 5's and encouragement. He always looks for an open cutter before he shoots the ball, so what's to worry about? I think that Yao needs to continue to get a lot of touches, not necessarily a lot of shots. It depends on if he's feeling it or not. But just him getting the ball in the post, it opens up opportunity on the perimeter. Yao cannot be ignored.
believe it or not, yao played basketball before in another country called China where he shot more than he does here. Is he capable of taking more shots? yes. is he capable of doing better? yes. he shot 21-21 in the china finals, i think he can at least do 12-12 one day. he didnt have the greatest night, but hes still getting into having a larger role on the team, that takes more getting used to. i do want to add though, i notice that when he gets the ball out of the post, everyone runs away to let him iso but yao holds on to the ball and looks around to pass. if he knows that everyone is going to let him post up, wouldnt he save that extra 2 seconds to just start bumping instead of looking around and letting the defender get ready?
Yao needs to average around 18 shots per game and get used to it. Sure he will have some off nights. But if he average 9 shots a game, he will never become a dominant center we hope he will eventually become. Houston will never be close to championships without developing Yao. Simple enough.
The key is not whether Yao get many shots or lot, the key is how he shot them. If Yao dare not to fight in the paint and always try to shot from outside, he will NEVER become the center you expect, no matter how many shots he takes.
Yes, that is true. For the whole game, he made only a couple move inside apart from those offensive rebounds. One was the nice down and under move. The other was the missed dunk. On the other hand, the ref didn't not call foul for the other team's two hand push the whole game. It was frustrated to go inside when you had two guys pushing you all the way.
18 shots out of all 80 shots for a number-one offensive option, and you call it too many??!!! I say it is about right, and I wouldn't mind it he have taken two or three more!!
awesome! great analysis, 18 is just around the right number. i thought the number of shots tonight was about right, i mean when you go against smaller teams that what he needs to put up.
tonight was not about the number of shots he took.. It was about the kind of shots he took. the fadeaway jumper and wimpy hook from the left block need some more work...really, he needs to quit with the fadeaway. I liked the hook from the other side, he looked strong and determined when he shot that one..for some reason when he comes into the paint from the left block for that hook, he looks like he is tryin to shortarm it, or even push it up there instead of using his wrist to flip the ball in. He needs to work on those hooks...with his height the hook would be unstoppable. also...I thought he fought harder for rebounds tonight...he needs to keep that up... for the most part...he was ok...definitely not one of his better games. but everyone has off-nights.
18 shots is fine. he's gonna have off nights, just like steve, mobes, etc. good players keep shooting, no matter how badly they've been shooting. i said it after we lost to memphis and he put up good numbers, he's gonna have off nights. regarding the fadeaway jumpshot, i think it's a fine shot. up until the last two games it was a very accurate, high percentage shot. of course i'd rather have a dunk, but he's not always going to be able to dunk. shaq even shoots a fadeaways, hooks, and non-dunks. i know everyone wants yao to have a game like shaq, but it's still hard for me to imagine, seems a lot more like a duncan type player.
Ya know...I agree...he had a hard night..Im not gonna slam him like so many others do to other players when they have hard nights... but the fadeaway from a guy as tall as he is can be useful...but a spot up shot woul dbe more effective. Especially with a much smaller player on him. The fadeaway is great if you are in danger from getting blocked..but as you get more fatigued laterr in the game...you start to lose the strength to accurately put it in the hoop. If he were to dribble a couple of times to make the opponent back off a step...then just take the jumper. He already has the height advantage...and with his skill putting it onthe floor..the opposing player wont be sure if he is going to drive around him, dunk, or shoot...he will be unsure of what to do. then Yao can just jump up and shoot...or even better, drive and dunk.. I'll take anything as long as it goes into the bucket....but I really feel his fadeaway is not the best shot for him.
Has anyone else noticed that last year Yao had more variety to his low-post moves? Moves that reminded so many Houston fans of Hakeem's "Dream Shake," moves such as up-and-unders, or ball-fakes in one direction and then spinning and shooting in the opposite direction, but this year he seems not to use those moves as often. He finally did use one up-and-under move late in the game tonight, and it totally shook his defender and he hit the shot. But too often he's been relying on fadeaways or hookshots where the defender knows which direction he'll be shooting from. Even if he's going to shoot the hook, for example, why not fake to his right first and then pivot left for the hook? He would then be much more open when he shoots that hook instead of having the defender draped on him.
Remember Yao got 6 off rebounds so some of those shots came from put backs. He did get a good number of touches but it was not a ridiculous hi number.
The number of shots he took were fine. I like that he was more aggressive and looking to score. However, the quality of the shots were terrible. He's got to create some better space between he and the defender before taking a shot. Every single fadeaway and hook shot he took were highly contested. Hunter gave Yao absolutely no room to shoot, and even blocked a couple of his shots. A 7'6 player should not have that many shots altered by the defender. Yao made it so easy for Hunter to guard him because every move Yao made looked like he was going in slow motion. His post moves were far too predictable.
15 - 20 shots per night is just right. They just weren't dropping last night. Steve and Mobes are playing great right now and Ming has just seemed a little unsure of himself lately. I think he let the offensive foul (hooking) bug him too much.
i wanna see him have more fakes in his post move. the one and only fake he had in the game had hunter jumping up on him and he spun to the basket. that was nice. his misses all came from fadeaways and crappy hookshots. the kind of plays his defender could anticipate and react to
